UT Dallas GM Chess GM Invitational in March
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,
  

The UT Dallas Grandmaster Invitational will be one of the top GM closed tournaments in the world for the month of March. It will be a Scheveningen clash between the Home team of University of Texas Dallas and a Visiting Grandmasters team.

For UT Dallas on the chess board will play GM Valentin Yotov (Bulgaria, 2560), GM Cristian Chirila (Romania, 2529), GM Julio Catalino C. Sadorra (Philippines, 2509), IM Milos Pavlovic (Serbia, 2491), IM Conrad Holt (USA, 2480).

The Visiting team is composed by GM Giorgi Kacheishvili (Georgia, 2612), GM Ray Robson (USA, 2591), GM Aleksandr Lenderman (USA, 2583), GM Magesh Panchanathan (India, 2573), GM Leon Manuel Hoyos (Mexico, 2569)

UT Dallas Grandmaster Invitational system
The Scheveningen system provides the optimum invitational event for a team. Each player on one team plays each player on the other team. The team with the highest number of games won is the winner. This system creates title norm opportunities. Their current International Masters (IM) could achieve Grandmaster (GM) norms. Three norms are required to receive the title of Grandmaster.

In recent years, the Scheveningen has been popular in hard-fought matches between Russian and Chinese teams. The system was first used in a tournament in Scheveningen, Holland in 1923. The original idea was that a team of 10 Dutch players could face 10 foreign masters, allowing players to experience strong competition. In keeping with this style, a team of five strong GMs has been invited to Dallas.

The Scheveningen system is rarely seen in the United States. In this tournament’s format, the five UT Dallas team members will face the visiting five GMs twice, for a total of 10 rounds. Every member of the home team will face 10 consecutive rounds of games against strong competition.

Schedule

Saturday, March 10 Opening Ceremony 4:30 p.m.
Round 1 5 p.m.
Sunday, March 11 Round 2 10 a.m.
Round 3 5 p.m.
Monday, March 12 Round 4 10 a.m.
Round 5 5 p.m.
Tuesday, March 13 Rest Day and Blitz Tournament
Wednesday, March 14 Round 6 10 a.m.
Round 7 5 p.m.
Thursday, March 15 Round 8 10 a.m.
Round 9 5 p.m.
Friday, March 16 Round 10 10 a.m.

Studying and preparing are essential for members of a chess team. Nevertheless, there is no substitute for the training provided by playing actual high level tournament games. The UT Dallas Chess Team did this last fall with a tournament prior to playing in—and winning—the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. Now with the UT Dallas Grandmaster Invitational Underwritten by Turner Construction Company in the spring semester leading to this year’s

Final Four of Chess in Washington, D.C., the team will again be poised to compete with the very best college chess teams in the United States for the President’s Cup. Free to the public, live master commentary will be offered during every round of the tournament at the Hyatt Regency, Richardson. Commentators for round one will be FM John Jacobs and Rodney Thomas; for last round, GM Alejandro Ramirez. All other rounds will feature commentary from IM Rade Milovanovic.

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